


Justice Syndicate

by fajrothelost



Category: DC Elseworlds, DCU
Genre: Multi, Other
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-11
Updated: 2021-01-12
Packaged: 2021-03-15 21:14:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,206
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28695270
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fajrothelost/pseuds/fajrothelost
Summary: The DC Multiverse is made up of 52 Earths, but 7 of them are isolated from the rest for mysterious and forgotten reasons. This is the story of 7 heroes and their journey through the mysteries of the multiverse in search of the Cosmic Grail, a mystical and mysterious object that represents the last hope against a powerful entity that wants not only to destroy the multiverse but also to end all stories forever.





	Justice Syndicate

It seemed like that would be a rather calm day at Valla-Hal, the cosmic watchstation created by the lost race of the Monitors to monitor and confront threats to the structure of reality, also known as the House of Heroes.

Three years have passed since the Justice Incarnate’s battle against the Prophecy, a fight for the lives and powers of the Supermen of the Multiverse. These protectors of the worlds were saved, but the price was the life of Red Racer. Ray Marshall was a happy man, a lovable husband, an irredeemable nerd (he was the team’s comics specialist, after all) and an unstoppable hero. Without his presence, the group of multiversal heroes lost something important. To Hank Hallmark, the Flashlight of Earth 36, the world didn’t make much sense without the one who helped him know himself and happiness itself.

In the Conference Central Room, in which was located the main panel of cosmic monitoring, Dino-Cop and Machinehead took a little break, while Happy DaVinci and dr. Will Tornado worked to keep the good functioning of the Harbinger system. Aquawoman and Captain Carrot sparred a bit, while Accelerator, who was there as DaVinci’s escort, did what he could to not embarrass himself in front of Mary Marvel and Platinum Wonder Woman. Flashlight was also there, because yesterday was the anniversary of Ray’s death and he wasn’t in the disposition to stay at home.

Since tat day, nothing that was interesting has been happening in the Orrery of Worlds. The course of history seemed to flow normally in all the Earths – or at least, in the 45 of them that could be observed. There were 7 seven special Earths in the Multiverse that, for some unknown reason, were isolated from the rest of the Orrery. According to the Harbinger databanks, the ones responsible for isolating these worlds are known as the 7 Monitor Magi, however the hows and whys were erased from those databanks, so it wasn’t possible to know what is happening in those universes.

While everyone was preoccupied, a peculiar sound echoed through the corridors, signaling that the Transmatter Cube was activated. The Superman of Earth 23 has arrived, greeted all the heroes present and sat on a chair, preparing himself for any emergency of the day. Moments later, Happy came out from under the panel, with a smile on his face.

— Alright, people! In the end, the damage was nothing more than knotted wires. It was just a question of putting everything in the right place.

— That’s some good news – Superman responded –, and what about Harbinger, doctor? Will they be fine?

— It’s hard to say, Superman – answered doctor Tornado –, most of these systems are, honestly, beyond my comprehension . Luckily, the Monitor helped us a lot in this process with his instructions, and now we can say with certainty that everything has been verified and all installations are working at their maximum capacity.

— Excellent. Please, restart all the systems. We can’t waste any second, it's time we take a more proactive position, we need to overcome the barriers that impede our access to Earths 7 and 33. I don’t like being in the dark for so long in relation to the plans of the Empty Hand. We need to know how far their plans are for the Oblivion Machine.

DaVinci and Tornado collected their tools, put back the metal plates that protected the circuits and restarted the supercomputers. A yellow light spread through the room, and a giant, feminine face appeared in front of everyone. It was Harbinger, the AI interface of the entire watchstation.

— Multiversal Monitoring and Protection System Harbinger online and updated. Hello, President Superman. You’ll be happy to know that no emergencies happened while I was shut down.

— I am happy to hear that, but you can just call me Superman, Harbinger. With repairs completed at last, we can advance with our plans. Let's start with Earth 33. We know it has a relation with the Empty Hand due to the Ultra Comics incident. But even with us being able to observe it, we can’t access it. What else can you say about it?

— Because of a more rigid quantum structure, common elements of most universes, like superheroes and magic, are not present on Universe Designate 33, making it an exception on the Orrery of Worlds. Information gathered by the Monitors suggests the reason for that is the Fictive Membrane, a sort of force field that surrounds this universe and allows only the passage of ideas and concepts that reverberate throughout the multiverse.

— A world without superheroes???? Wow, that sounds like a real drag! – said Captain Carrot.

— Not now, Rodney – Superman exclaimed –! Continue, Harbinger.

— Perceiving that, the Monitors decided to use this Earth as a repository of information, where events from other worlds would be recorded in the form of fiction. Although this already happens naturally among the other universes, the inhabitants of this Earth seems to have a more enhanced form of imagination, facilitating the perception of said events by them. Despite of that, former iterations of this universe presen-

The alarms of the House of Heroes started to ring all at the same, in an excruciating and desperate symphony. Superman got up from the chair just after Harbinger stopped talking and started shouting:

SOS SOS SOS SOS SOS SOS SOS UNIVERSE DESIGNATE 50 UNDER ATTACK FROM THE GENTRY EMERGENCY EMERGENCY EMERGENCY

— We are receiving an attempt at contact from Earth 50, Superman! – announced Dino-Cop

— Put it in the main scream, Erick, please. – said Superman, with a voice heavy with urgency.

— This is commander Richard Grayson, is someone receiving this? – said the military man, desperate and incredulous of someone hearing him.

— This is Superman of Earth 23, commandar, we hear you. What’s the situation there?

The commander took a pause of three seconds, trying to process what happened and find the right words. As he formulated the phrase, it didn’t seem real to him.

— … giant one-eyed bats transformed whole countries in masses of living flesh… zombies rotting everything with a touch… the screams, the sound, I don’t know what to say… I don’t know how to describe it… 

— It’s alright, general – Captain Carrot interrupted –. Are there any survivors? How’s the rescue going?

That was the question the disturbed soldier needed to recompose himself: – Yes, yes, the survivors… we managed to rescue a few thousand people, especially from the most isolated countries. As far as we are aware, we lost all of our protectors, but brought as many as we could to Neo-Gotham. Besides earthlings, we have refugees from Thanagar, Rann, Bolovax Vik and other unlisted planets. Even with that, the survivors still can be counted in the thousands… and that damn sound…

— The Anti-Death Equation… – completes Mary Marvel

— That’s more than enough for us, Commander – said Superman, trying to cover his sadness –. Do you have access to the Transmatter cube, or other dimensional portals?

— Yes, the Justice Lords keep it in the Hall of Do, which is where we are now. We also have a temporal gate that allows us to access another timeline.

— So here’s the plan: Harbinger, calibrate our Transmatter Cube to Earth 50. Happy and the doctor will try to use the systems here to access this temporal gate, so we need help from someone there. The priority is bring whomever we can here. We still don’t know how to save this universe, but we will save all the lives we can. Commander, please, direct all the survivors to the gate and the Cube. Contact the surviving Justice Lords to come with us too.

— We still have no return from them, but I’ll send the message as I can. I’m sending the information about the portals while our systems are still online. Thank you, Superman. Over and out.

— Let’s go, my friends, we can’t waste time. – said Superman firmly – DaVinci, Tornado, can you help us to monitor the Cube so it can stay open long enough for everyone to come here?

— Without interference from the other side, I don’t think we’ll have problems. – answered DaVinci – But I don’t know if it’s a good idea to leave such an open entrance, the evil hordes may try to take advantage of the confusion. 

— The information received from that temporal gate indicates that it’s actually connected to Earth 12, which is opposite Earth 50 in the structure of the Orrery. However, I’m not receiving any return signal, so there’s good chances that exit is not working. – added dr. Tornado.

— While you were talking to the guy, I called for reinforcements from the rest of the Justice Incarnate and also Justice 9 with my Power-Torch. – punctuated Flashlight.

— Well done, Hank! – said Mary Marvel, asking for a high-five that was timidly responded

— Excellent idea, Hank, We have a good team of heroes, here today, maybe enough for this rescue mission. Harbinger, look around your systems to see how we can take care of the refugees. Get ready, team. – commanded Superman.

With all gathered before the Cube, a colorful light surrounded them, indicating the Cube was turned on. While the heroes crossed, they felt a melancholic music passing through their bodies, that was becoming increasingly sad and broken. Arriving at Earth 50, in the building once known as the Hall of Authority, they were received with some hostility by the soldiers, pointing their guns scared, in a state of alert. Until the arrival of commander Grayson.

— Stand down your weapons, soldiers, they are on our side – said commander Grayson, directing himself to greet Superman –. I admit I was skeptical when Lord Warhawk asked me to enter contact with you, but man… the universe is a really weird place.

— Tell me about it, commander! – answered Captain Carrot.

— Commander, we don’t have time to lose – said Superman, to start the work –. We would like to know exactly the situation here. What happened to your world?

— I honestly don’t know how to explain. For what we investigated, it seems related to a wave of extremely violent crimes that was occuring in the last few months. Many of the criminals presented symptoms related to insanity, screaming things like “Doom is the way” and “Empty is thy hand”. Initially, we didn’t pay much attention, we were focused on the Justice Lords’ initiatives to reestablish a better cooperation between them and humanity.

The weird sound, that indicated the melody was being distorted and destroyed, started to become clearer, even for those without super-hearing, showing that the Anti-Death Equation was spreading more and more. Commander Grayson tried to continue the explanation, while fighting to not be consumed by despair.

— We only became aware of what was really happening three days ago, when an overwhelming horde of what we believed to be zombies swept across various places in Asia. The people died and came back, but we just couldn’t kill them again, beginning a cycle of destruction. Haunted mansions appeared around Europe, creating a wave of madness that took many people to either kill themselves or as many as they could. And I can’t forget about the damn giant bats. You’ll see what I mean.

Grayson directed them to a giant screen, exhibiting images of the Gentry corrupting the world. Demogorgunn, Lord Broken, Intellectron, everyone was there. But for some reason, the members of Justice Incarnate felt discomfortable. In their first attack, they left just one survivor, to destroy his spirit with the devastation of his world. This time, they even gave a window of opportunity for a rescue operation. Could that be part of some plan?

— We know exactly what these creatures are, commander. – said Aquawoman – They are the Gentry, enemies of all the universes. We faced them before and, honestly, I don’t know if we won. This is the first we found them in years. Their method is to kill the population of a universe and revive them in a distorted and unliving form, a process themselves called “gentrification”. What happened to the Justice Lords?

— We lost contact with them all – answered the commander, with sorrow in his voice –. They worked without rest to bring as many people here as they could. but at some moment, they couldn’t contact us at all. As far as we know, everyone here are the only survivors.

— We need to be honest with you, Commander Grayson – the tone of Captain Carrot changed drastically –, we already saw what they are capable of doing with an universe. And by the state of things, I don’t think we can do much for your world.

Richard couldn’t hide his disappointment, but didn’t appear to be surprised. Captain Carrot put a hand on his shoulder, expressing a heavy but honest smile. 

— However, you did a good job rescuing all these people. We can’t save the world, but we can save everyone we can, and that’s what matters in the end. The gate isn’t working on the other side, but the cube is connected to our base. We can take everyone out of here, but we need to start now.

For the first time in days, the soldier who spent his youth fighting alongside Lorde Batman and the rest of his adult life helping the Justice Lords administrate the world could feel a bit of hope. That feeling allowed him to take a deep breath, and with a communicator in hands, he started to speak to everyone present.

— Attention, inhabitants of planet Earth. Unfortunately, there’s no more hope for our world. Everything that we hold dear to us is lost. Our heroes fought to their last breath, but we spent so much time seeing them as our gods and lords that we forgot that they also have limits and that lives can end. But we who are here, are alive. We faced desperate situations before and we stood victorious. Now, I ask for you to hold on for a little more, so we can have the chance to fight again. With the help of heroes from parallel universes, we will leave our reality into the unknown, but I know we will not waste this second chance!

The reactions to the commander’s speech were varied. Some surrendered to despair and cried without stopping, while others felt energized and mobilized to start the rescue procedures. Superman decided to take the lead and organize the present heroes so they could help with the operation.

— I’ll go outside to verify the situation. Aquawoman, Captain Carrot and Platinum Wonder Woman, go to the entrance and maintain a defensive position, let’s make sure the zombies can’t interfere. Machinehead, stay here to ensure the Cube stays on all the time. Accelerator and Mary Marvel, help the commander with the crowd, so everyone can traverse in an orderly fashion.

With teir orders, the heroes started the great rescue plan. While it was being executed, Superman went to the sky and used his super-vision to assess the situation. And everything he could see was a tragedy.

Buildings destroyed or rotting, falling to pieces. Bodies animated, but without souls, fighting each other, filling the streets with blood. Any semblance of plant life ruined and broken. By trying to focus on his hearing, Superman could only hear screams as far as he could. A cacophony of pain, despair and death. The oceans became giant bathtubs of rotten water and corpses of fish and atlanteans. Focusing a little more, Calvin Ellis could hear the sound of this universe being unmade by the Gentry. By doing that, he also hear a message:

— WE C U, SUPERMAN!

Looking to the ground, he could see a group of neo-gothamite zombies getting closer to the complex. Looking to the horizont, he saw an army of abominable creatures getting closer to the city. There was nothing human or alive in them anymore. The corpses of billions of people were mixing together with parts of Demogorgunn of the Gentry, as if they were trying to form a gigantic creature. Between them, Superman could identify those who once were the Justice Lords. Even though he didn’t agree with their extreme methods and ideologies, Calvin couldn’t help but lament for these tyrants who lost their lives as heroes. However, the movimentation made clear they wouldn’t have much time to complete this rescue.

Even with the invasion at a relatively safe distance, Grayson mobilized most soldiers to outside, to not take any risk. The multiversal defenders were already preparing for what looked like a massive showdown. The refugees continued to enter the Cube, but the energy flow was already getting unstable. When everything seemed lost, a green light appeared, like a ray of hope.

It was what was left of the Green Lantern Corps, led by John Stewart, Lord Green Lantern, who abandones Earth after becoming disappointed with the idea that he was doing the right thing by siding with Lord Superman’s tyranny. Along with him, came a dozen Lanterns and a small fleet of ships coming behind, with survivors from other planets. The Gentry managed to corrupt other worlds, but some lives could be saved. The Lanterns watched everything happening from the sky and pain filled their hearts. John marked possible landing spots for the ships, while his comrades went to face the monsters upfront. After he himself landed, he looked for commander Grayson.

— I can’t believe I got here so late… – said Lord Green Lantern;

— John… I… – Richard couldn’t say anything, but the tears he had been holding up seemed like they would come out all at once.

— You don’t need to say anything, Dick – Interrupted John –. This is happening throughout the universe. Not even Oa… Not even Shayera… 

Superman came down from the sky to help with the recent arrivals. When he landed, Accelerator appeared.

— The Cube is holding up, but it will run out of energy soon. I don’t know if everyone will escape in time.

John fled inside, and saw the weird armored man working in the generators.

— What can I do to help?

— Your ring can help to keep the Cube on for long enough, but when its energy runs out, I don’t think there’ll be enough time for you to come with us.

— Don’t worry, I don’t need to go anywhere. – said the Lantern. He pointed the ring to the battery pointed by the technological genius and shot a concentrated beam of green energy, that powered up the portal, allowing the evacuation to continue.

The hordes got more and more closer, and the screams of lament got more and more louder. The alien refugees ran as fast as they could to inside the Hall, helped by the military forces. Alongside the humans, they entered the portal and went straight to the House of Heroes. Arriving there, they were welcomed by the heroes summoned by Flashlight. Super-First responders of Earth 48 acted to make sure everyone injured was assisted. The Justice 9, the Metal League and the Agents of W.O.N.D.E.R. helped them to organize in groups and to guide them in the confusing layout of the place.

With the civil population in safety, it was the soldiers’ turn to flee, with the ones outside leaving the situation in the hands of the Green Lanterns and coming back inside. Seeing that everyone was safe, the commander activated security measures, setting the defenses to maximum level to buy what little time he could. Weapons in the outisde attacked the aberrations and monsters, them being in the sky or the ground. After the troops’ evacuation, only Richard Grayson and Justice Incarnate stood before the Cube, ready to enter it.

Grayson saluted the man who lived as a hero and as a dictator. After he and the heroes stepped in, Superman managed to say only “I’m sorry”, as the army of the unliving torn down the iron walls that sealed the improvised haven. With no one else there anymore, Lord Green Lantern stopped directing energy to the Cube, which made it turn off. However, he didn’t have time for a final confrontation with the gentrified population.

A gigantic beam of what seemed like a dark light hit the building and got through the planet at once, initiating a chain reaction that undid the planet’s atoms, generating a massive amount of energy that made Earth explode. The explosion started an energy wave that spread throughout the universe almost instantaneously, disintegrating everything in its path, including dark matter. Everything that was, is and will be was replaced by a void. And so, a entire reality died.

The House of Heroes was a mess, to say the least. Everyone was really scared and nervous, since they came from a world in which it was hard to trust in its heroes. Even so, they didn’t have many options, and the gratitude from being rescued overcame the distrust in the end. When commander Grayson stepped in that extraordinary place felt like a child again, part of a wonderful world of adventures. Arriving at the Central Room, Richard was approached by a man with bleached hair and a Batman costume, alongside a woman and a small boy. It was his wife and son. He hugged them with a strength that would make kryptonians jealous, and those tears from before finally got out.

All of that was being observed in silence by the artificial intelligence that maintained Valla-Hal functioning. Her advance programming allowed her to even feel, although she didn’t express herself in the same way organic beings do. And at that moment, realizing what happened to Earth 50 and that she had to divulge this information, she felt a mix of fear and sadness so strong it was like she was alive in the same way as them.

— Presiden- I mean… mr. Ellis… I have to update all of you about Universe Designate 50, but… 

— What happened to Earth 50, Harbinger? – asked Superman.

Everyone’s attention turned to her. She made a pause, looked at everyone present, and announced:

— Universe Designate 50 no longer exists.

Everybody got apprehensive and tearful. Parts of them knew the situation was bad, but didn’t imagine it would be at that level.

— Can you give us more details, ms. Harbinger? – The news were enough for commander Grayson to recover from the tears’ estupor.

— Universe Designate 50, including Earth and all planets with life, and also all the numerous timelines regarding this universe in the Hypertime web were erased from the multiverse. All my sensors can detect is a… void in the Bleedspace. A hole in the tissue of the multiverse, if you prefer.

She opened a multiversal map on the screen, and in the area that Earth 50 should appear, there was only an empty space. All the refugees felt desolated. 

— Not even Earth 7 was like that… it’s still in there, right, Harbinger? – asked Platinum Wonder Woman.

— Affirmative. Even with the presence of the Empty Hand and the Gentry in Earth 7, it still is part of the Orrery of Worlds. This is no longer the case for Earth 50.

— So this is the Oblivion Machine. This is the real plan of the Empty Hand – said Mary Marvel, desolated as well –. It wants to erase the multiverse, one Earth at a time.

The heroes of Justice Incarnate looked at each other, and the sadness in their eyes was clear. However, Grayson put his hand in Captain Carrot’s shoulder and said, with a melancholic smile:

— Although our reality doesn’t exist anymore, we are still here. Bruce Wayne taught me a thing or two about hope… even if I have forgotten about that a little due to the course our lives took. We can’t fix it, but we can move on.

— I knew I liked you for some reason. And you’re right, we always have a future in front of us.

— Please, friend. Call me Dick.

While the weight of the news hovered over everyone there, the heroes continued to help with the refugees. But just a few minutes after the tragic announcement, the alarms went off again. Panic and tension took over the surroundings, and the heroes started to prepare for a possible new rescue operation. However, the message was not what they were expecting:

ALERT ALERT CONVERGENCE OF THE SEVEN UNKNOWN WORLDS IN PROGRESS ALERT ALERT CONVERGENCE OF THE SEVEN UNKNOWN WORLDS IN PROGRESS ALERT ALERT

— Seven Unknown Earths? What’s that? – asked Dick to Captain Carrot.

— Our multiverse is composed of 52 Earths, Dick. They occupy the same place in space, but vibrate in different frequencies. I, for example, come from Earth 26. Our big boy in blue is from Earth 23. Mary is from Earth 5, the scaled warrior is from Earth 11, the guy in the weird armor is from Earth 8, the robot warrior is from Earth 44, and so on. But, of these 52 Earths, we can visit 45 of them. These remaining seven cannot be accessed by dimensional portals, teleporters or even the Transmatter Cube, nor monitored by Harbinger, and we don’t know exactly why. They were denominated the Seven Unknown Earths, mostly for dramatic purposes.

— And what this convergence means? What’s happening in them?

— I don’t know, commander Grayson – answered Superman –, but whatever it is, we can only hope they don’t need us, because I don’t know if we can go there to help, whoever may need us.


End file.
